Sunday, May 02, 2010
Two Days in Pictures, Day One: Tidepool Birthday
It’s not like I’m out of words - I’ve got two essays in the can and ideas for a handful more. Verbosity is just oozing from my pores. But sometimes giving free rein to one’s pores is not the right move, am I right, people? Sometimes you just have to back up and post a whole crapload of photos to remind yourself - because for everybody else it’s not a reminder, it’s new information - how lucky you are, how interesting is your life, how much wood a properly motivated woodchuck actually can chuck. With all these good reasons for putting words aside for a day or two, I think I’ll share a couple of days with blogsylvania here and make a permanent record of some authentic experiential goodness. It’s better, anyway, than the permanent record I’ve got of getting into a fight with Tommy Wheeler in 4th grade. It’s about time I improved on that one, don’t you think?
So, two days: one was my birthday and one was a Monday off work. Neither was exactly like it usually is, so a bit of photographic memorialization is manifestly in order. My birthday came first, so I’ll dedicate this post to that. I had big plans - hire a babysitter and hit wine country, get a little supper in Mill Valley on our way home. Okay, maybe those are pretty small big plans, but I’m a pretty big small man so it all fit well. Except the babysitter never got our email so she was not able to provide child care so we had to regroup at the last minute. Instead, I set my heart on lunch and some bean-shopping in Pescadero, and a visit to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve on the way back. Turns out we got too late a start and hit some deadly car-and-air show traffic - Pescadero was out. We just stayed in Half Moon Bay, ate some servicable pub grub with some pub-brewed suds, and then went right to the marine reserve. And that totally rocked.
Fitzgerald Marine Reserve is a part of the coastline that’s significantly protected by a series of off-shore rocks; as the sea meets the land there’s a wide shelf over which the tide ebbs and flows. Over the centuries the incessant action (my favorite kind) has carved runnels and coves where life thrives in a way that people in California rarely get to see without a wetsuit. So, I looked at it pretty damn good, and even took some photos. It is those that I share with you now.
(as ever, click to embiggen:)
Into the sea:
This gives a pretty good sense of how the land just moves out under the ocean here, blending solid and liquid experiences till the distinction between them becomes difficult to retain (though it’s still pretty relevant).
A bunch of rocks
Apart from all the plants and animals that are easily distinguished, the rocks themselves there are so much a part of the biosphere as to glow with the colors of life.
Anemone
These guys were everywhere - open and closed, large and small. With the tide starting to come back in it was challenging to get a nice shot of a big flowery one, but this will have to do. They’re animals, you know. Very, very slowmoving animals.
Sea star
This cheerful fellow was all curled up in a puddlehollow, just waiting for the sea to come barreling back and give him the keys to the highway again. In the meantime he didn’t actually look comfortable, but Jesse sleeps in his car seat in pretty much the exact same posture sometimes and seems no worse for it.
Musselshell
Another tricky shot - the water was fairly deep and the current was getting strong. But I liked the colors so I gave it a shot. Typically I don’t even need that much of an excuse.
Children of the Crab
These guys were rock-hopping with us (and many others, the place was pretty popular that day). They were rocking the crabhunt action and I just liked their pride of discovery. Take that, crustacean! You’ve been discovered!
Binox Jesse
Jesse likes equipment. Here, he turns the binoculars upon the scene a foot or two in front of him. I can’t imagine how magnifying it would make it much better but he enjoyed the hell out of it so I figure we got our money’s worth. As the consultants say, it’s all about the optics.
Wading Zach
This was a not-shallow runnel, with cold tidewater rushing up into it pretty steadily. Zach was having way too much fun to let that stop him. However, he was wearing rather absorbent shorts, and took the appropriate pains to preserve them in an unsoaked condition. He’s a punctilious one, that Zachary.
Zach tosses his kelp
No explanation needed.
After this excursion, we drove back up Highway 1 and stopped to pick up my birthday dessert, which I decided should be cinnamon rolls and root beer floats. We’d just forage the house for supper but dessert was of greater importance. However, curiously, once we got back home and upstairs none of us could find the bag of groceries with the ice cream or root beer or random other necessary items we’d picked up. We just had left-over mexican food for supper, and I enjoyed a bowl of raisin bran for dessert. And even so, it turned out to have been a delightful, life-affirming birthday. Had I planned it just so, I’d have been fully satisfied.
The next day I took a vacation from work and traveled to Sacramento to lobby the legislature. I’ll share the commute pix with you at some upcoming date. Meantime, remain fully hydrated. We’re 70% water, you know, and the other 30% may mostly be root beer floats if you plan things right.
